Rocklahoma Teams with AEG Live, Will Add Modern Bands to Bill

Here's the official press release I just received from the Rocklahoma folks.

Pryor, OK – The producers of ROCKLAHOMA announced today that they will be teaming with the world’s largest producer of music festivals, AEG Live, to revamp the rock festival in 2010.   The management team that created the critically-acclaimed rock festival in Northeast Oklahoma in 2007 has brought on board one of the most respected festival producers and promoters to serve as executive consultants of the festival in a multi-year deal. 

“In keeping with the vision that we set out to realize three years ago, we have learned that we need the strength of a major player in the live entertainment business behind us if we want to continue to grow ROCKLAHOMA,” said Mark Nuessle, President and Co-owner of the festival.

Nuessle added, “AEG Live brings an incredible amount of expertise and credibility to the table, and that is exactly what we must have to continue the process of making this festival one of the premier destination rock festivals in the U.S.”

As part of the multi-faceted deal, AEG Live will focus specialized attention on reworking and further developing ROCKLAHOMA in several key areas including talent booking, marketing, sponsorship, ticketing and festival operations.   The entertainment company will work hand-in-hand with the current ROCKLAHOMA management team to grow and expand the festival to new levels of attendance and acclaim in the coming years. 

“We’re really excited to be working closely with the entire ROCKLAHOMA team to create an even more incredible festival for the rock fans in Oklahoma and surrounding areas.  Mark and his partners have built something very special with this festival that more people need to see and experience,” commented Joe Litvag, Senior Vice President of AEG Live.   

The first major changes come with this announcement that ROCKLAHOMA will be a three-day festival in 2010, and it is moving from its past mid-summer dates to May 28-30, 2010, Memorial Day Weekend.

“One of the first things that we discussed with our team and AEG Live was the idea of eliminating a fourth festival day in an attempt to create more depth-of-talent on each of the remaining three days. We want to expand the reach of our audience to a greater distance by giving the fans who will attend from other parts of the country an extra day to return home on the long Holiday weekend,” commented Nuessle.

Litvag added, “Additionally, we felt that by moving ROCKLAHOMA into May, the festival could capitalize on more suitable weather for the fans as well as deeper artist availability by not directly competing with the U.S. summer touring season and European festival season.”

In keeping with the ROCKLAHOMA tradition, next year’s festival will include booking the most formidable classic rock bands in the world.   But in addition, festival producers and AEG Live will create a much more diverse roster of rock artists that will include a large confluence of new active artists, as well as the classic rock artists that ROCKLAHOMA is known for.

Announcements of the 2010 ROCKLAHOMA line-up, on sale information, new VIP packages and additional festival upgrades and improvements will come later this winter.

For additional information, and to see highlights from 2009 – please visit www.rocklahoma.com.

It Happened - Don Dokken and George Lynch Perform Together

Awhile back, I posted about the Lynch Mob/Dokken shows. Over the weekend, George Lynch joined Dokken on stage in San Diego for a special performance of "In My Dreams." I gotta say, I was pretty darn excited about both bands playing together - I'd love to see George and Don together on stage, just like back in the 80s. Of course I can't always make every show, so I didn't travel to California for this gig. Thankfully, YouTube takes us there free. I was hoping "In My Dreams" sounded like the album...but Don's voice is pretty rough here. Some comments over on Blabbermouth seem to indicate every musician involved in the show had the flu. If that's the case, I give kudos. I can't imagine having to perform a rock show with the flu and I bet that was brutal for the guys. Anyway, here's the clip. Watch and let me know what you think. We've waited a long time for this.

Caught in Despair

So I decided to take a dedicated listen to "Caught In Despair" last night - the new demo by Crashdiet. The song is a first taste of what the Swedish band sounds like with new singer Simon Cruz. The band popped the song up online in June and I listened then, but only half-heartedly. Since I'm getting really itchy for a new Crashdiet release, I dedicated to revisit the matter.

Here's what I think. "Caught in Despair" is a great demo. It's a little rough, but that's to be expected. Simon sure has a high voice - which is perfect for a Glam band! I love the riffs of the song - and great work by the rhythm section, too. Listen for the guitar solo!

Crashdiet just canceled a bunch of their shows because they are supposedly behind in the studio. I hope they hurry!

Crashdiet will headline the Rest in Sleaze festival February 6, 2010 in Stockholm. I suspect the band will also play a major European fest this summer - but that's just conjecture on my part.

If you haven't yet checked out the demo for "Caught in Despair," click the clip below. Let me know your thoughts. I've decided comparing Dave Lepard and Oliver Twisted and now Simon is futile since they are all so different. Agree?

Sweden Rock Fest is Already Announcing Bands...

I guess it's that time of the year again: Sweden Rock Fest is already announcing bands. This means we'll start getting a lot of band announcements for other European fests soon, too. American events tend to lag, with most band announcements coming in late winter. So far, Sweden Rock's lineup isn't great - but it is a good start. Here's the official release:

Another four bands have now been confirmed to next year's Sweden Rock Festival. 10 out of a total of around 60 bands are now confirmed.

Its been way too long, but finally RICK SPRINGFIELD will come to Sweden and of course to Sweden Rock Festival. He has had a long career as an actor, but it is with his music he really hit the big time, especially in the 80's when he released classic albums like "Working Class Dog", "Living In Oz" and "Rock Of Life". With last years "comeback" album "Venus In Overdrive", which broke the Billboard top 30, he showed his class as a song writer once again and live it's heavier and better than you can ever imagine.

We are also happy to announce the return to the festival of one of Swedens biggest metal bands, SABATON.
With a brand new album coming out this spring they will come to Sweden Rock to deliver the biggest and baddest stage show they have ever made. Those who are into melodic metal simply cannot miss this!

From Denmark comes one of the bands we get the most wishes for: D-A-D. As usual, they will give the audience heavy rock with a very characteristic sound influenced by both country and punk, and classic songs like "Sleeping My Day Away", "Bad Craziness" and "Laugh 'n a ½".

Last but not least ANVIL, a classic canadian heavy metal band that will do their second gig at the festival and this time they are riding high on the waves of the highly acclaimed documentary "The Story Of Anvil". A movie that show how this band has been fighting tooth and nail from the 80´s untill now without ever really catching a break. After this film though, the world finally seems to be ready for them and Anvil is bigger than ever!

Sweden Rock Festival is held in Sölvesborg in southern Sweden on June 9-12 2010.
Tickets are on sale on our homepage: www.swedenrock.com.

Out of a total of around 60 bands on the main stages, the following have been announced so far:

Bachman & Turner (Can)
Rick Springfield (Aus/Us)
Sabaton (S)
D-A-D (DK)
Saga (Can)
Unisonic (D)
Bigelf (US)
Anvil (Can)
Mother's Finest (US)
Jorn (N)

Of this list, I am most excited about Bigelf and D-A-D. I’ve never seen either band live and Bigelf is just cool. The guys in that band are nice, too. I'm hoping this festival appearance means Bigelf will be playing a lot of big shows over the summer. I really would love to catch them.

What do you think of these bands so far?

It's Black Friday

Black Friday. My superbowl. I love cheap deals. As such, I'm keeping this short because I'm getting in line early. No, I'm not one of those people with a tent at Best Buy. That's even a little hardcore for me. At least in Ohio in late November. Anyway, thinking of Black Friday made me think of Steely Dan. So not Glam, but still an awesome band.

Steely Dan - "Black Friday"

Also, my AOL review of Shiprocked has posted. The photo team didn't have time to make a full gallery because of the holiday, so there's just a few pics. I'll try to post the rest of my gallery here this weekend. After all, my husband did go to the trouble to taking the shots.

Happy Thanksgiving; Let's Be Thankful for Ronnie James Dio

By now, you've probably heard the sad news that Ronnie James Dio has stomach cancer. Cancer is a nasty beast, but all accounts say Dio's doctors caught the disease early. As such, the metal master will undergo treatment immediately. I don't know how long it takes to go through treatment for stomach cancer, but I imagine it's not exactly quick. Still, here's hoping Ronnie James Dio will be back singing on stage very soon.

Can you believe I've never seen Dio live? A shame, I know. He's definitely been on my must see list for awhile now...it just hasn't happened.

So, while you Americans enjoy Thanksgiving and the rest of the world goes about its collective business, maybe we should all pause and remember those people that are important to us. We should also give thanks for Ronnie and Metal -- because without music, we wouldn't have much to talk about!

It's Time to Pick the Best Albums of 2009 - Your Input Needed

It's almost December...and that means we're nearing the end of the year. I usually just post a list of my selections for the best album of the year. This year, I thought it would be cool to ask you to email me your lists of the best albums from 2009. So here's what you do: email your choices for what you think are the ten best releases of 2009. They don't all have to be glam - just whatever you think is best. Email your lists to allyson@bringbackglam.com by December 14, 2009 at 11:59 pm EST. I'll compile all the lists and tally the top vote getters. I'll publish our list of the best albums of 2009 one day during the last week of the year.

I'm pretty sure I already know the top choice for the number one slot...but it will be interesting to see if we're thinking along the same lines. Get to work!

If you don't email your list, your choices will not be counted!